Knicks owner James Dolan‘s comments about looking to avoid the second apron have raised eyebrows around the league, according to James L. Edwards III of The Athleticwho notes that while the penalties for going into the second apron are indeed onerous, teams with the ability to win the championship should be more open to operating in that range.
Six players from this year’s championship team will be free agents this summer: Mitchell Robinson, Landry Shamet, Jordan Clarkson, Ariel Hukporti, Mohamed Diawaraand Jeremy Sochan. Edwards predicts that Diawara will be back next season after a strong rookie year, but the futures of others – especially New York’s two highest-profile free agents, Robinson and Shamet – are less clear.
Jose Alvarado picking up his $4.5MM player option would further tighten the financial picture, which is why Edwards speculates that the New York native could decline his option and re-sign on a multiyear deal with a lower starting salary. Ultimately, Dolan’s edict suggests that one or both of Robinson or Shamet won’t back next season, unless the team trades a player already on a guaranteed deal — or the Knicks owner changes his mind about surpassing the second apron.
We have more from around the Atlantic Division:
- The Celtics are widely reported to be involved in the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade sweepstakes, but they need to decide if such a significant pivot is really their best path, writes The Athletic’s Jay King. On one hand, Jaylen Brown is coming off the best individual season of his career and is still under 30 years old, and trading for stars on the wrong side of 30 can be a risky proposition. On the other hand, trading Brown now could be seen as selling high on the talented forward coming off his second All-NBA season. As King details, Boston would also have to decide how much it values young prospects such as Hugo Gonzalezwho showed great promise this season but doesn’t project to offer anything close to the kind of immediate value Antetokounmpo would provide.
- Given his contract and injury history, the Sixers are unlikely to be able to move Joel Embiid in the foreseeable future and will have to accept the former MVP’s belief that he and the team’s medical staff have figured out a viable plan to manage his knee issues, Gina Mizell writes in a mailbag for the Philly Inquirer. Mizell also notes that playing Embiid alongside another big man, perhaps Adem Bonacould be one way to protect the veteran center, similar to how the Spurs sometimes played Victor Wembanyama and Luke Kornet together in the regular season.
- The good news is that when Embiid played for the Sixers this season, he looked nearly as good as ever, at least on the offensive side of the floor, Keith Smith writes in his offseason preview for Spotrac. Paul George also had strong stretches of strong play after his return from suspension. However, the team’s options to add quality depth this summer are limited, and it’s likely that they pick up three players on team options, bring back one of Kelly Oubre Jr. or Quentin Grimesand fill out their remaining roster spots with veteran minimum deals.
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